Pay gap of genders are larger in certain industries

Certain industries like finance and insurance see women earn 72 pence for every pound a male colleague earns.This is according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Annual Survey of Hours and Earning (ASHE) which shows the finance and insurance industries to pay women this amount compared to men.On average women earn 91 pence for every 1 pound a man receives.

Jon Boys, labour market economist at the CIPD, said:“Overall, there has been a small increase in the gender pay gap, but it is not statistically significant.On average, women now earn 91 pence for every one pound a man earns. However, women working in the finance and insurance sectors earn just 72 pence for every one pound earned by men. In contrast, women working in employment activities, such as recruitment, earned slightly more than their male counterparts. While we must allow for sectoral differences, the rate of change is slow and it’s likely to take years, even decades, before we see real, lasting change across all parts of our economy.”Frances O’Grady Trade Union Congress (TUC) general secretary believes the gender pay gap will be around for decades to come.Ms O’Grady said:“Our economy is still stacked against working women. At this rate, it will take decades to close the gender pay gap. Government must pick up the pace. It’s clear that publishing gender pay gaps isn’t enough on its own.Companies must also be legally required to explain how they’ll close them. And bosses who don’t pay women fairly should be fined.”

The gender pay gap for full time employees has actually increased to 8.9 per cent in April 2019, from 8.6 per cent in 2018. The Fawcett Society, an equality charity has reacted to the ONS data by saying progress on closing the gender pay gap is “dismally slow”. They predict it will take 60 years to put an end to the pay gap.